Before eventual Oscar-winning director Ang Lee decided on going full CGI for his 2003 superhero film Hulk, the production experimented with a fully animatronic version of the character. How do we know? Steve Johnson, of course.

Johnson also promises to continue to reveal tens of thousands of hours of footage from his 30 year career both on YouTube and in special behind-the-scenes DVDs he’s beginning to sell. Check out the video and more after the break.

First thing’s first. This video shows how the transformation from Bruce Banner to Hulk might have looked and also how the hand might have worked. Based on those two things, do you really think this robot could have looked better than the actual CGI? I’m all for using practical effects when it makes sense, and I agree that Ang Lee’s CGI Hulk had some issues, but I just don’t see how this robot could have looked better than what we eventually saw.

Andy Khouri of Comics Alliancesays that “the unused robot appears to eclipse the middling quality of the CGI version we ultimately saw.” I simply have to disagree. Is this robot impressive? Undoubtedly. Would it have been improved upon before it finally went to camera? Absolutely. But there’s a reason Ang Lee chose to go CGI and basically throw away however many hundreds of thousands of dollars it cost to create that robot. I’m guessing it’s the face. The Hulk is all about emotion and while we still haven’t nailed emotion from a computer, I think we’re closer than we ever were with a animatroic robot.

What are your thoughts on this video? Would you have preferred to see robot Hulk instead of multi-sized CGI Hulk?